Friends, one of my colleagues is searching a Toyota sedan. He was new to vehicles and he was respecting one mechanic known to him. That mech fellow told our guy that "Toyota Gorilla" is a good car and find one.....:). He is now chasing after me to find that.....:). Is there anything such Toyota Gorilla released around 2006 ~ 2009? Don't know whether these guys referring to Corolla or something.....:)

Chiming in here the AC in my 2018 Civic Hatch stopped cooling as well. Turned out the condenser had massive leaks in multiple places. Car had only done 5000 Kms. Got a new condenser and had to refill R1234yf gas. Total cost 130K!!
Seems to be an inherent problem with inferior materials used on the condenser. A quick search says that this is a common issue. Also as the car is low to the ground and has a front grille that has large openings the condenser can be prone to debris damage.
May be worthwhile for anyone buying a new civic to get this checked out before taking delivery from your importer.

Bodywork started after disassembling almost all parts. Remain only the outer shell of the car with wiring harness which can not pullout easily. Gauge 14 & 18 zinc coated metal sheets used for most places.
Firstly cut the right side of the chassis and welded new bar.
Then the left side and floor board plates one by one. All door bottoms, front and back wings repaired. Mean time door hinge pins refilled at a lathe workshop. Finally attached all doors and wings again to check the aligning.
Carbide 9kg and a oxygen cylinder consumed for this works.

Well as mentioned by sadik above two different types of car - with the only common factor being the price. I assume you are referring to the 1st Generation of both cars XP40 (the XP90 actually resembles the Yaris/Belta) for the Vios and XP60 for the IST. It depends on whether you're looking at a sedan or a hatch.
While IST's did come with the 1.5 L 1NZ and the Vios did have the 1.3 L 2NZ for the majority of cars in SL the IST had 1.3 and Vios 1.5.. the vios was a tough and reliable workhorse but now after 15 years of abuse it's a little difficult to find a non-hacked specimen out there. Some of the IsT's though have aged a little more gracefully specially the interior bits and pieces are still holding up compared to a majority of the vios's where they have started to show their age. But this does not mean there are gems:I have an uncle running a 2004 vios with KI plates for the last 12 years still in absolute mint condition.

Well - For starters Vios is a sedan and IST is a hatch. Vios is Thailand / Indonesia built (like the Avanza) vs IST was Japanese made. Both cars are plenty used in SL , and both lines if i am not mistaken have been discontinued. Vios now goes at Ativa i think and am not sure which replaced IST.
Personal experience , i preferred the IST to the Vios despite the space handicap. But mind you IST was 1.3 ( there were a few 1.5s) whilst Vios is 1.5. I can remember the i.3 IST did better fuel vs the Vios, and creature comforts IST was much better. In fact in the West the IST was sold as one of the iconic "Scion" brand name dubbed "Urban cruiser". The last IST model was quite the looker for me. The last Vios model was based on the Yaris / Belta in fact , despite a few cosmetic changes it was hard to dis-certain one from the other. I think the Vios had more bling like a nickel shell and slighly modified headlights + better kit. But you dont get many examples in SL and i think many were imported for Airforce +Navy usage.
The experts must correct me but both cars had the 1NZ engine, although not sure about the gearbox for Vios.
Don't know about the latest Vios , but the one before which was very popular in SL wasnt very comfy for me and had noisy suspension. Dont know whether it was a build quality problem / the example which i used was maintained bad. On the contrary the IST faced road abuse much better, being the more silent and smoother ride.
IST was more responsive , fun to drive and also looked better vs the Vios. But i think Vios had more pick up.
IST had a few grades, where you got some very good kit for the car. (F, FL so on). Personally if you ask me i would prefer the IST , against the Vios , during the whole usage experience of mine.

I would say you should stick to the EK and fix and do some sensible modifications to it. A decent EK2 is pretty rare in SL and many enthusiasts will drool over it till the end of their days.
Even if you sell the EK and try to buy another car, your choices are limited (especially in finding something that feels better). Also, you have no idea what the condition of the new car would be....

Yes it's a basic A-B car. Performance is non existent. You have to really step on the gas at times to get to a decent speed. Going on all roads does not necessarily demand performance. Recently got down a 2016 Safety unit for an uncle of mine as a personal import- genuine mileage little less than 30k. It gets him from A-B and that's it. He however made the observation that it was vibrating a lot - an observation tiv had also made.

Wow! That's a lot of work. Do you do your own tinkering? So once you cut out the chassis bar how do you prevent the roof from warping? The B pillar is not supported at the bottom, so doesn't the weight of the roof warp the structure?

Lol yea, the Mira and the Hustler both have hill assist, so they don’t roll back, but whereas the vitz and monteros roll back in D making it a bit interesting.
I used to drive a defender with that heavy clutch, good times
the clutch and the gearbox was so difficult to engage that it sometimes rolled back and rested on nearby trees and walls lol
this was when they were a handful and V*P wannabes hadn’t screwed them up. Crude was the word

I think it will do like average Jap sedan. Diesel 12 kmpl and petrol 8 kmpl. Normally Jap sedans also do similar or just little more during usual city traffic. But if you ask this question from a lankan mech or tech, he would tell Jap sedan would do 40 kmpl and European car would do 2kmpl....😀. You have to check with guys who have knowledge on both.

Hi so, about the Mitsubishi’s, personally the above vehicles are really good, but would defeat your purpose on being a reliable tourer, see the montero sport, it’s not going to happen around 6mil, if there are cars, they’d be badly hacked or mileage turned, they take 200,000 plus cars and make em 100,000 and sell em, so if you buy one you ll have work, most of the true mileage ones are above 7mil , and owners are less likely to part with them cheap. Agent mileage records can also be cheated if you know the right people.
and an older montero, same story, lot of pending work. Mostly .
It’s not going to be cheap For both these either, the montero sport has very little aftermarket / recon parts so it’s mostly agent
montero bits are by the hundreds but not cheap either
So you ll be hunting for parts and doing repairs rather than going on this tour,
I’d suggest something newer, cheaper and smaller, so you’ll have money to play around with, Incase something goes south. And something that will hold value

please calm down, I never said foreign spouses should not get Sri Lanka PR.
At least in the west (EU), it is mandatory to show sufficient official-language skills of the country where the applicant LIVES even on a spouse visa. If he's out for more than 2years,it will be reset. This measure is to protect the local culture and ensure ALL foreigners integrate properly in to it. I also checked out the Japanese conditions,
.https://visa-immigration.net/info/permanent-residence
nothing seems to be mentioned about spouse visa, its only about "benefits to Japan"(tax..) from the person.
so yes I agree that the PR should be available in SL, but first the authorities have to study and implement requirements similar to other developed countries. After all what is wrong with asking foreigners who want to settle down here to learn Sinhala or Tamil? It will even help them to understand our society and how things move here.

well..now you are just being blindly pessimistic and saying negative things for the sake of saying things....the partnerships were never about directly copying everything from each other....there were about tech knowledge transfer. So NO....it is rather blind to say that the partnerships never worked. When you transfer technology know how...the intent is to learn from each other for our own thing rather than taking the other person's work.Toyota was working on the downsized Turbo engines and BMW was working on Hybrids well before the BMW-Toyota partnership....but what Toyota learnt from BMW did transfer in to improving their engines and what BMW learnt from Toyota would reflect in their Hybrid systems (this does not mean a direct copy). Same goes with Subaru. Mazda and Toyota worked on integrated platform strategies together...that does not mean that the TNGA-C platform is the mid size SkyActive platform with a different name. Also, you cannot say that BMW gave much more than Toyota did...in fact there is speculation that the new Supra has an exact copy of the BMW engine dropped in to it because the production process was not to be replicated and also there is the fact that BMW did not let Toyota change the engine to suit the slightly different layout of the Supra Toyota wanted. The only time the system looks exactly the same is in the case of the Axela were Mazda was never interested in developing a Hybrid system and they have claimed that over and over again....their only interest in Hybrids were just as a stop-gap until they could develop engines like the SA-X. Would be interesting to see what the next step is as the world moves away from gasoline. With PSA they never went with Hybrids because it was not feasible for them considering the market.

Prices of mechanical pars are a bit high as tiv mentioned. and most of the time you have to source from the agent. Front prop shaft would cost you 100K above - the rear almost double that price - the replacement would come around 80-100,000 kms. Even the rear spare wheel cover is expensive. So it would not be a low cost maintenance vehicle. being a 1.5 L engine on a largish car would mean extra strain on the engine hence will do around 8 KMPL. Other than that it's a simple old school car .

Do i see a crack there in the rail ? that rail will break away. You are better off replacing i guess.
Some of my caps are cracked due to UV damage. Even if I try to remove them to repair, they will break like papadam 🙂

I own an Axio 141 (2007) with a 135,000km. So here are some of my knowledge on engine tune up which I've learnt on YouTube & forums along with the experience on my car.
Tune up is a maintenance to make the car run RIGHT. Which is to increase performance, fuel efficiency & to reduce future repairs.
1. Changing engine oil. Change ur engine oil every 5,000 to 6,000 km. Always remeber engine oil is cheap but engine repairs are very expensive. I use 'Mobil 2000, semi synthetic 5W30' apprx 3.3 litres. I buy oils & filters at Panchikawatta (Mobil 2000 oil 1L 1200/=, VIC oil filter 1,000, toyota air filter 3,500 & cabin air filter 1,000) and i change it at a service centre for just 500/=. This way i save around 3,000 to 5,000 if i had it done at a service centre.
2. Oil additives. I've added Liqui Moly 'Ceratec' to my engine on my last oil change after lots of research on YouTube & reviews so i used abt 3.1 litres of 5W30 + 190ml of ceratec. I was pretty happy & satisfied with the results. Engine started to run alot smoother & quiter (less vibration even when starting a cold engine, quite idle plus my fuel economy has improved). This costs 3,600 yet its a long term investment which its effects might last upto another 3 or 4 oil changes. I highly recommend.
3. Filters. Its very important to change ur filters at the right intravels for optimal performance. Use OEM filters. Dont buy cheap oil & air filters to save money. Change ur oil filter on every oil change intravel and ur air filters if their dirty. Cz clean air filters helps to breathe clean uninterrupted air to the engine in return it gives performance & good fuel economy. Next is ur cabin air filter. Its very cheap so that u can change it at every oil change intravels for a cleaner A/C.
4. Throttle body & MAF sensor. This is a very simple DIY maintenance to improve cars fuel efficiency, performance & engine tune though many forgets. Just buy a Throttle body cleaner spray and a MAFS cleaner/Contact cleaner would cost 2,500 for both or less. There are plenty of videos on YouTube so plz refer before starting. Do the cleaning on every oil change intravels for keep ur car at its optimal performance. Trust me it will make a great improvement.
5. Fuel system. I've had very good experience of using Liqui Moly Injection cleaner (900/=) poured directly in to the fuel tank. Had noticeable changes in throttle response & a smoother idle with increase in fuel economy along with internally it helps to clean fuel injectors & more (I've used it before i add the ceratec so i know it made a difference, hence now with ceratec i see the same differances without it so i knw ceratec works good too! But to clean ur fuel system this cleaner would definitely helps). I suggest it to use it on ur every oil change or as the company suggests to use every 2,000km. But all i can say is that it works!
6. Spark plugs. Just check ur spark plugs at a service centre. Usually they lasts from 50k to 100k km depending on the driving conditions. So change them if needed. It only cost around 2,000 per spark plug. Hense bad spark plug means poor performance & bad fuel consumption. I changed & the results were just amazing.
7. Others. Good tyres. Tyre pressure. Coolant. Wheel alignment.
Hope these would help.
Good luck

Do not accelerate fast especially at traffic lights, get a pair of ear plugs so that you will not get disturbed by honking of people behind who are in desperate need to get to places.
Always use the center lane so you don't get distracted from fast moving traffic
On highway stick to 60-70 kmph this is the range Allion/ Premio is most economical, you should be able to get over 20 kmpl
alternatively get in to a bus or train which is more economical or a sell the car and get a Wagon R which has more leg space, has all the bells and whistles and will be 10-12 in the city 16-18 highway even if you beat the s**t our of the car.